Encountering entitled parents in the wild can be entertaining and incredibly traumatizing. But being the child of that entitle parent going off on the staff at a restaurant? Embarrassing. How do they handle it? What was life like growing up? We've combed through Reddit to share what the children of entitled parents had to go through.
Content has been edited for clarity.
A True Karen
“My mom is very I-want-to-talk-to-your-manager. She complains about everything and treats service workers poorly because she sees them as beneath her. She doesn’t demand free stuff, and usually doesn’t ask for discounts, but she definitely complains about EVERYTHING. She once nearly made a phone store employee cry because the in-store stock was different from the website and my mom tried to argue with the poor girl and asked where she could lodge a formal complaint.
Anyway. Pretty much from a young age I was embarrassed by her behavior, because I never saw any other adults behave like that and I knew it wasn’t okay and wasn’t normal. I stopped going places with my mom because I knew she would just be annoying and I didn’t want to be associated with it. By the time I was a teenager I’d try to slip notes to employees apologizing for her behavior.”
One Dedicated Mom
“My parents are very smart people. Highly educated, Ph.D’s in math and neuroscience. They’re both members of Mensa and would administer IQ tests to me as a child. Armed with the phenomenal results of my IQ tests (156), they got me into every school, and every extracurricular program they could manage. When I started doing poorly–failing entire grades even–it was never my fault. It was the fault of the institution, because ‘I was a child genius’, and there was no way I could ever be wrong…
I remember sitting in the principal’s office, while he tried to explain to my mom that I was going to need to repeat a grade. She screamed at him as loudly as she could, berating him for over 20 minutes and blaming him for my poor academic performance. The whole time I sat white-faced in the corner. This happened multiple times a year. I actually think her tantrums are what got me through to the next grade each year.
The problem with these IQ tests —when given to kids — is that they are often inaccurate and usually indicate that the child’s brain has developed slightly faster than the other kids in their age group. Then, puberty kicks in and levels out the playing field. Sometimes, the kids who were more developed at 8 ends up being the dumbest kid in the class by age 13. This was me. Two very smart, although arrogant people had (by an unfortunate fluke of genetics) had a kid who ended up well below average. My mom got her psychologist friend to give me the WAIS when I was 19, I scored 93.
Sometimes, I think my mom just faked my scores as a kid to help get me into good schools.”
Don’t Touch The Baby
“So I was in the Mall of America with my family. My stepmom, dad, and two younger brothers were in a ride, so I was told to watch my baby sister. Everything was pretty ok, and I was sitting on a bench close to a boy with some sort of mental disability and his father. I’m guessing the boy didn’t notice the baby up to this point because when he did he ran up to her and STARTED SHAKING HER AND TRIED TO RIP HER OUT OF HER CAR SEAT.
Naturally, I immediately pushed him off and pulled her away. The boy ran off to his dad and I figured that was the end of that. I was very wrong and a few moments later the dad walked up to me. The interaction went something like this:
Dad: ‘Is this your baby?’
Me: ‘No, it’s my sister.’
Dad: ‘Well, why didn’t you let me son hold her. He likes babies, you know.’
Me: ‘I don’t know you, or your son. I don’t see why I would let him hold her.’
Dad: ‘I told him he could, and he has [insert disability].’
Me: ‘Ok, well, it isn’t your baby so you shouldn’t tell people they can hold random people’s babies without permission and I understand that but it’s incredibly disrespectful to let your son go up and grab my sister.’
Dad: ‘It isn’t your baby either.’
My parents got off the ride with my brothers and walked over, so I started to let them handle it then. The boy left MULTIPLE scratch marks on my sister’s face, so yeah, everyone was pretty angry.”
She Takes Things To The Next Level
“I don’t really think my parents as a whole are very entitled, but my mom’s 100% done some Karen stuff.
One time, she sat outside a shop for two hours waiting for it to close so that she could catch the manager coming out. Once he finally came out, she pulled up in the car and put the window down and began to swear and shout about how bad the company was and how they owed her money. The manager looked as if he had been slapped in the face; he was in complete shock.
And although I was young, I was pretty sure he was innocent anyway because I always remember my mom getting mad over small things. All I could do was sit in the back of the car almost in tears of embarrassment as I realized my mom was entitled.”
Their Significant Other’s Mom Is Insane
“I’m not the child of an entitled parent, but my boyfriend sure is.
His mom is something else, let me tell you. I think the first time I realized I was not going to get along with her, she had taken me and my children to go get McDonald’s for everyone.
I already didn’t want to go, because I didn’t know her well enough to be alone with her for any lengthy amount of time, in my opinion. But went to make my boyfriend happy.
A trip that should have taken, like, twenty minutes tops (she was getting food for 6 people) wound up taking close to an hour.
When we got there, in the drive-thru no less, she took her sweet time ordering and asking these people all manner of questions about the food. We had everything picked out beforehand, so she spent an extra ten minutes questioning them for just her order alone.
THEN, we get to the window and her card wouldn’t work. They told her that it was their system, not the card. They always have issues with whatever type of card it was she had tried to use.
Now, this woman has all manner of credit cards in her stupid bag. She also always has at LEAST two hundred dollars cash on her. My point being, she could have used a different method of payment. Instead, she made them run the card, like, six more times. When that didn’t work (and she had been screaming at the poor drive-thru person the entire time) she pulled up and parked.
She made me and my kids get out with her because she was acting like a raving lunatic. She said it was because she would need our help to carry the bags, but it was because she wanted an audience.
We went in, and she then proceeded to degrade the kid at the counter. Called him names. Told him she was going to call the owner of this particular store because she KNEW her card would work here and ‘someone’s doing something funny.’ The whole time, I was apologizing.
I told my kids to go play, so they wouldn’t have to witness it. I even offered to pay for the food. But she was making such a scene that they just gave her the whole order for free. Like, refused to take my money (probably because she screamed at me for even offering) and told her she had her food, and to leave.
I have hated her ever since.”
The Aunts Can Be Crazy Too
“I was running some errands with my 9-month-old son in the stroller at a local shopping mall. I hopped into a lift and there was a woman in there already with a cute little girl (her niece) who looked to be of similar age. The woman looked like she had spent some money on her appearance, full face of makeup, hair extensions, nails done. I don’t know enough about fashion to say anything about designers, but she certainly looked well put together. Nothing wrong with that, just some context. I on the other hand, looked like a mess. We made awkward small talk between floors while the babies burbled at each other. We got to my floor, and she followed me out of the lift. This is where the crazy began.
Woman: ‘I don’t suppose you happen to have a spare bottle with you? I left hers at home.’
Me: ‘Sorry, no.’
Woman: ‘Oh, it’s just she’s due for a feeding and I need to do some shopping.’
Me: ‘That’s a shame. I don’t have a bottle, but I do have a spare rusk, she’s welcome to that.’
Woman: ‘No, she definitely needs a proper feed, otherwise she’ll cry the whole time I’m shopping.’
Me: ‘Uh, well, there’s a Woolies and a Kohl’s near the parents room on this floor, why not pick up some basics? I’m sure her mum could always use the spares.
Woman: ‘No, I’m already babysitting for free, I’m not going to spend my own money on someone else’s child.’
Me: ‘Okay, well, have a good day then. Hope she’s not too fussy.’
At this point I started to walk faster, pretty keen to no longer be talking to this random woman, but she kept up.
Woman: ‘Wait! I know! You clearly feed naturally (she looks me up and down, whilst gesturing to my clothing), you could just feed her!’
Me: ‘I’m not going to do that.’
Woman: ‘Why not? It’s free and you stand to burn the calories!’
Me: ‘Wow, okay, I’m not comfortable with that at all.’
Woman: ‘Why not? It’s not like you’re about to run out (gesturing at my chest)’
Me: ‘I’m not feeding someone else’s child, particularly not someone I don’t even know. Plus, I have medical issues that mean that it’s not a good idea for me to do that.’
Woman: ‘She’ll be fine, just do it. She’s so hungry!’
Me: ‘Then buy her some formula or go and get the bottle you forgot to bring, I’m not going to feed her.’
Woman: ‘I can’t believe you’re going to let an innocent child starve, don’t you even care?’
Her niece seemed pretty chill, not even fussing.
Me: ‘She seems like a nice kid, she’s still welcome to that rusk, but if you want more than that I can’t help you.’
Woman: ‘Why not?! You’re just too selfish to help a sweet child?’
Me: ‘I’ve already told you that I’m not comfortable with what you’re asking me to do and that it’s a bad idea for my health. Leave me alone.’
Woman: ‘How could it be bad for your health, it’s the most natural thing in the world!’
Me: ‘My medical history is none of your business, leave me alone or I will call center security.’
Woman: ‘Fine, well thanks for nothing, you fat cow!’
And with that she finally stopped following me. I did see her around the mall a couple of times as I ran my errands, but she thankfully didn’t try anything and her niece seemed fine.”
She’s Not Taking No As An Answer
“About five years ago, my family rescued a golden retriever named Maya. She was my responsibility so my family refers to her as my dog, and she came into my life when I was dealing with a death in the family. Needless to say, she helped me a lot and is very special to me.
I moved to university and I come back during the summer. The neighbors next door are a family of three — a mom and dad who are always at work and a 6-year-old daughter. This summer the mom asked me if I could babysit her daughter while she was at work, and she paid me in exchange. The daughter, calling her K, grew very attached to Maya, who loves most kids, and they played together almost constantly whenever she came over. After summer ended, mom came to pick up K one last time, and K burst into tears and started hugging Maya, saying she didn’t want to leave her. I calmly explained that Maya was my dog, and I was like her mom, so she would be sad if she had to leave her mom. K calmed down and understood after the conversation, but Mom was NOT having it, and she started to cause a scene.
Mom: ‘Really? Can’t you see she loves that dog? She promises to take care of it.’
Me: ‘I’m sure she does, but she is still my dog.’
Mom: ‘That’s not really fair. You’re not even here most of the time, doesn’t the dog deserve an owner who will spend all their time with her?’
Me: ‘Doesn’t change the fact that she’s MY dog. My family is still here to take care of her, and they love her very much. I’m not going to give you my dog.’
Mom: ‘Well, it’s not really giving her away, is it? How much have I paid you, that definitely covers the cost of buying the dog.’
At this point I really wanted to scream in her face. She paid me to watch her kid, not to buy my dog. I didn’t want to blow up in front of K because she’s a sweet girl who probably only continued to cry because her mom escalated the situation and confused her, so I separated Maya from K and told her (the dog) to go inside. I told the mom to leave me and my dog alone and to find a new babysitter next summer, and later on she texted my mom saying I was a foul-mouthed girl (never cussed in front of her 6-year-old child) who ‘ruined the life of a 6-year-old girl.’ Hah.”
Over Protective As Ever
“Most of the time my mom was chill. But whenever she felt that I was being treated unfairly (regardless of whether I actually was or not) she became a freaking monster. She would smile and ask for your supervisor and then refuse to leave until that supervisor was in tears. I’ve seen this tiny woman make big burly manly men break down in tears with nothing but her words.
I was a quiet kid, I didn’t want to bother anyone, and I didn’t want anyone to bother me. When this happened, my biggest concern was that people would be mad at me for my mom’s behavior, and sometimes they were.
I remember one time, when I was about 13 I was on a Boy Scout camping trip. I was Troop Guide, meaning I helped teach the younger kids camping and survival skills. On this day, the younger patrol drew cooking duty, one of the kids was struggling a bit and asked for some help, so I stepped in and helped him out.
My mom flipped out because it wasn’t my turn to cook, so why was I cooking? She first tracked down his mom and made her cry, which made me feel awful. And then she started bad talking the kid. Talking about how useless he was that he didn’t know how to boil water.
I exploded on her and told her to shut up and leave. I told her I didn’t want her around and that she should just go home; I’d grab a ride home with one of the Scoutmasters. I apologized to the kid and to his mother profusely. Then helped the kid make dinner.
My mom claims that it was this incident that finally made her realize that she was the bad guy, and then I didn’t need, or want, her to stand up for me.
She backed off a lot after that, and now she’s much better, never loses her temper like she used to.”
At Least It Looks This Behavior Skipped A Generation.
“I was at a fairly famous theme park in Australia, and they have this wildlife area with a small aboriginal and bush ranger info shack where they have a whip crack game where you have to hit all the cans on a fence with a whip when an innocent kid walks over curiously and accidentally spills my drink, here’s how the conversation went:
Kid: spills drink
Me: ‘SHOOT!!’
Entitled Mother (EM): gives me a death glare
Me: ‘It’s fine. It’s ok.’
EM: ‘Don’t freaking swear at my little kid.’
Me: ‘Look, I’m sorry for swearing, it was just a reflex.’
EM: walks over to my cup and POURS IT ON ME!!
Me: ‘WHAT GIVES?’
EM: ‘That’ll teach you freaking autistics not to mess with normal people. You shouldn’t even be here, you degenerate. People like you should just stay in the mental hospital where you belong!!!’
This land whale had the audacity to pour a drink on me and then insult and degrade me because I have autism?! After hearing that, I just walked off to get away. As I’m walking, the innocent kid runs up to me and then hugs my leg.
Kid: ‘I’m sorry I spilled your drink and I’m sorry for my mum hurting you.
Me: ‘It’s ok kid, thank you.’
After the kid apologized, I walked off knowing that even the mom’s toddler was still respectful and that there is still hope for this young girl.”
It Was The Friend’s Mom
“My daughter had a friend several years ago. She spent the night over at the girl’s house one time and came home upset because this girl’s mom was ‘a psycho.’
Not only did she lose her mind on my daughter for simply asking her friend to play a certain radio station, ‘how dare you tell my daughter what to do!!’ But she also took them to fast food restaurant and proceeded to scream at the poor girl working the register for being out of a certain item. For ten solid minutes she screamed and threatened, and was in general just a giant hag.
My daughter never wanted to go back, though she felt really sorry for her little friend with the crazy mom. This woman scared my daughter. I still think of that girl and hope she is able to grow up without mimicking this behavior.”
Another Entitled Mom? Go Figurines
“So, little context, I’m a huge Overwatch fan girl. I have a couple shirts, two hoodies, a couple key chains, and backpack hangars. A lot of my stuff is Reaper, my favorite character ever.
Well, into the story.
I went to my grocery store, so I could get some groceries for my parents. As soon as I got out of the car, my little green alien box (Kia Soul), a kid and his mother were standing outside. The kid was not much older than 6 or 7 years old. The kid pointed at my car, and got all sort of excited. There were a bunch of backpack hangars on the rear view mirror, and they were all Overwatch. The kid pointed, started to talk to his mom quickly, and got really excited.
I didn’t really care to notice, locking my car and turning to walk into the grocery store with my list set out. The kid tugged on my sleeve when I got up on the sidewalk.
Me: ‘Can I help you, buddy?’
Entitled Kid (EK): ‘Yeah, my mommy says I can have those figurines in the window. Can you get them for me?’
Me: ‘I’m sorry, what?’
Entitled Mom (EM): ‘You heard him. Open your car and get those figurines.’
Me: ‘Uh, no? I paid for those, and the one at the top a friend gave me.’
EM: ‘Well, ugh, get them out! My kid really likes them, and he deserves them!’
Me: ‘No. I have groceries to get, excuse me.’
I stepped to walk into the store, and the kid started crying out crocodile tears. The mother huffed, and grabbed my arm.
EM: ‘Well, give me your keys! I’ll get them myself!’
Me: ‘If you touch my car, I will call the cops. Let me go.’
She let go, huffing and taking her kid. She walked away to her SUV, thankfully, and sped off.”
He Never Thinks He’s Wrong
“There have been times recently I’ve refused to go out for meals with my dad because it would always end in him yelling at some poor kid. I once tried to reason with him saying ‘if I came home and told you some adult man had just started yelling at me for something out of my control, you’d be furious’ to which he said ‘yes, but that’s just unreasonable’. You can’t tell him. He’s always right and everyone else is always wrong once we stopped at services (a gas station) with really confusing parking, and he literally said to me and my brothers ‘the next person I see I’m going to give a bollocking about that parking’. My brothers and I have a whole routine for when he does this, we tell the person we’re so sorry about this or just walk away. A few months ago we stopped for some food, and he did his thing and I left crying telling him that this was getting out of hand, and he doesn’t seem to care how it affects us, so he started yelling at me. Then I started throwing my food at his car which I admit was childish and didn’t help. I was just frustrated and talking to him wasn’t working. I complain to my mum about it, but she always just says “that’s why I left him” which isn’t much help either. I feel literal pain whenever he does this and always runs what should be fun outings for us.”
She Could Have An Entire Series About Her
“I could literally write an entire book series, complete with unnecessary spin-offs, about my entitled mother. Entitlement-wise she was pretty much what you’d expect, treated retail workers awfully (despite being one herself), demanding to see the manager, and having the emotional depth and maturity of a 7 year old; so with that said I won’t dwell too much on EM stories you’ve all heard before. Want discounts, would haggle everywhere, my child deserves this item etc etc etc
Definitely the most embarrassing thing she’d do though was her trademark strop (sulk) in restaurants. She’d fold her arms, slouch in her chair, and pout while looking at the table. Drove me absolutely freaking insane when she did that. Going out to eat with her was a pain, because she’d want to pay no more than a tenner but wanted gourmet food with outstanding service that was cooked to her own personal taste – which she’d never tell anyone what it was. Also, lamb. Crazy obsession with lamb, and if the restaurant didn’t sell it or were out of stock then she’d berate them and try to make them feel bad cuz they ruined this poor woman’s entire life because they didn’t feed her lamb.
Also, while she treated normal servers badly, god help the non-english ones. And I’m not talking about the one that came from another country to England, no, I mean servers who were in their own country listening to this crazy English woman talking LOUD and s l o w about how she doesn’t want a salad in her burger but still wanted the lettuce and tomatoes. Despite herself being an immigrant, if you didn’t speak English (or simply were not from England), you were trash. I began picking up Spanish and Flemish to apologize to foreign servers she’d harassed.
Another thing she was perhaps the most entitled to was my future. She had (or still has) this belief that she was going to control every single part of my life, from the clothes I wore, the friends I kept, the reputation I built, the professions I studied, the person I married (Indian, so, arranged marriage, ya know), and the children I had. She despised the idea of me doing things because I wanted to, and in her mind everything I did somehow have something to do with her. I trimmed my hair? Did it to spite her. Stayed out an hour longer than I should have? I did it because I wanted to rebel against her. I didn’t eat what she cooked? I did it because I wanted to starve and make her look like a bad mother. She simply couldn’t fathom that I could – and would – do things that didn’t involve her.
So, ‘what was it like being that kid’? Embarrassing, humiliating, constricting. I’m 20, and I’ve grown to despise my mother more than I thought I was capable of hating someone.”
All Because Of Winnie The Pooh
“When I was a little boy, my mom would be really mean and catty. One day (I believe I was about 7 at the time), my mother took me shopping with her. So we went to the mall and there was a big Winnie the Pooh plushy I wanted so with my birthday coming up, and me being spoiled to bits back then, my mother went to the store to buy it for me.
Unfortunately, right as we were looking for the plushy, we noticed it wasn’t there. My mother angrily went to the cashier and demanded the plushy. The cashier told her that she just sold the last one like 5 minutes earlier to a little girl and my mom grabbed me by the arm and scouted the entire mall for the girl with the plushy. After looking around for a few minutes she noticed the girl with the plushy. My mother stamped towards the poor girl and demanded to the father that her daughter should give it to me.
It took the dad and daughter off guard and the little girl got scared that badly she started crying. I already gave up and sat down at that point. After a lot of screaming, the dad had to call security on my mother, and she was kicked out of the mall.”